[caption id="attachment_124352" align="alignright" width="211"] Iran President’s special aid for religious minorities Ali Younesi[/caption]

An Iranian court has set bail for a senior presidential adviser while investigations continue regarding his controversial remarks on Iran’s foreign policy.   

Iran’s Special Clerical Court (SCC) announced Wednesday that Ali Younesi, President Hassan Rouhani’s adviser on ethnic and religious minority affairs, was summoned to the court a day earlier on charges of a “campaign against national security and propagation of lies.”

“A proper bail was set for him after he was indicted,” the prosecutor general for the SCC's Tehran branch, Mohammad Movahhedi, told Iran’s judiciary news service, Mizan.

Younesi sparked controversy last week after remarks about Iran’s sphere of influence in the Middle East. In an address to a forum in Tehran on Sunday, Younesi said, “At the moment, Iraq is not only the bastion of our civilization influence, but also our identity, culture and our center and capital and this is true now as it has been in the past.”

The comments led to huge controversy inside and outside of Iran, with nearly a third of the Iran's 290-seat parliament calling on Rouhani to dismiss him. The Iraqi Foreign Ministry also issued a statement, condemning the remarks as “irresponsible.”

The prosecutor said Younesi, who later tried to clarify what he really meant by his words, was summoned to the court based on a complaint by “security officials and the Judiciary.”

A former Iranian minister of intelligence from 2000 to 2005, Younesi has also served in top positions in the Iranian judicial system.

By Press TV